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Pique N Your Interest

Is Whistler getting boring?
andrewbyline

Life, John Lennon once said, is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.

And Whistler is perpetually making other plans – Olympic plans, plans for sustainability, plans for managed and limited growth through 2020, plans for Lot 1-9 (possibly with plans for a Paralympic arena), plans to revive tourism, plans to get more money/taxes from the provincial government, plans to make more plans.

And while all of this planning is going on, here’s what’s happening in the "life" department:

The Boot closed its doors for good on Saturday, April 29. I don’t think anyone really comprehends how much of a blow this was to music lovers, whatever their tastes may be. Even the Boot Ballet had its fans, whether you personally found it entertaining or not.

The Boot was one of the things that gave this town its mojo, with roots stretching back into Whistler’s hedonistic, pre "we’re a family resort" days – sometimes called "the good old days," depending who you talk to. There’s no question that things will be a lot more boring without it.

In the last few months there have been several public meetings with consultants to discuss ways to inject some life back into Whistler. One problem, we’ve been told, is that Whistler is losing its reputation as a unique place to shop as generic chain stores slowly replace our more eclectic local shops. Not only are regional visitors giving the Village Stroll a miss, so are many locals.

Until our largely absentee commercial landlords get a clue we will continue to see our established local businesses go under, and storefronts sitting empty until either chain stores move in or landlords can arrange temporary leases with various fly-by-night discount operations.

It’s as if the entire village has become that corner of the mall where nobody goes, and slowly gets taken over by sewing supply outlets, pet shops and dollar stores.

But while most of the real power ultimately resides with the landlords, the municipality could be doing more to help out – such as changing a few stifling bylaws to allow for more sidewalk shopping and livelier promotions. Let stores put as many racks outside as they want, as long as they’re not physically blocking traffic, and encourage people to browse. The village should feel like an open market, a place to be explored.

I find it funny (funny strange not ha ha funny) that the municipality is only now looking into the possibility of allowing buskers in the village on a trial basis, and only then to save Tourism Whistler some street entertainer money. Why did it take so long? Every city and town with any life in it at all has a few buskers on the streets – something for people to listen to or watch while they get money out of the bank machine, drop by the liquor store or line up to get into a club. We could even audition and license performers to ensure they’re good enough, or limit the places they can go if we’re worried about the situation getting out of hand.

Because of the high price of village rent, Whistler is also one of the only ski towns I’ve ever been to that doesn’t have a real pool hall. Teens need somewhere to go, as do all the adults out there who don’t feel like clubbing every single night. You can probably count the number of pool tables in Whistler’s dozens of bars on two hands.

But high rent isn’t the only reason we don’t have a respectable pool hall or other forms of evening entertainment. Mountain World and Alpenrock both failed, owners claim, because the municipality was too stingy with liquor licenses – especially for facilities that can be used by adults and children simultaneously.

The Alpenrock wasn’t even allowed to serve alcohol in its bowling alley, despite the fact that every single bowling alley this side of Saudi Arabia is licensed AND allows teens and children.

What are we so afraid of – that a teenager will somehow get his or her hands on a beer? And was the threat of a teen sneaking a single beer really worth putting multi-million dollar establishments out of business?

For a town that was partly founded on the quality of its nightlife, there’s a real anti-alcohol feeling emanating from the official powers. Instead of looking at positive ways we can manage people who are here to party we treat every inebriated person like a potential criminal and every bar owner like an aider and abettor. Most people are really just here to have a good time, and still deserve to be treated as human beings even if they’ve had a few – something the "you don’t need alcohol to have fun" militia will never understand.

It’s important to make Whistler fit for families, but I don’t think the town would survive without a nightlife. Guests aside, who would even want to live and work here?

My fear is that Whistler is getting boring, bland and generic, and that might be just as responsible for our troubles as our high dollar, the economy, or troubles at the border. After all, people still flock to Vegas, and it’s more expensive to visit than ever. It’s also more fun AND family friendly, despite having some of the most lenient liquor laws, busker laws, and street vendor laws in the entire U.S.

Sure, the sport and recreation here are second-to-none, but it takes more than that to be a successful resort. Even Utah has figured that out.